As described in Patent Document 1, a conventional vehicle alternator has a field current fed to an exciting coil thereof via a brush and a slip ring. At the same time, a rotating torque for an engine is conveyed to a rotation shaft byway of a pulley and a belt, and a rotor is driven to rotate. This causes a stator to develop an AC voltage. A rectifying device is attached to a rear bracket, is connected to an output terminal of a stator coil, and converts an AC output voltage, which is developed at the stator, into a DC voltage.
A diode included in the rectifying device has an IC chip soldered to a copper base. A copper relay lead is soldered to the IC chip, and a copper connection lead is further soldered to the relay lead. The IC chip is then molded with a sealing resin body.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3839576